Cafe Funiculi Funicula

Ayuko Tsukahara's 2018 Japanese film is adapted from Toshikazu Kawaguchi's novel. In a small cafe in the back streets of the city there is a particular chair, and whoever sits in it can travel to the past. The rules are strict: you must return before the coffee goes cold, you cannot leave the cafe and you cannot change what happened. The film tells four stories through that rule: a woman who wants to speak to the man she left, a man leaving a letter for a wife losing her memory, two estranged siblings, and the matter of Kazu, who works there. The impossibility of changing the past is central; people go not to correct something but to say a sentence they could not say. The tone is calm and emotional. Who it's for: viewers who like Japanese emotional drama and time travel stories. Who it's not for: anyone expecting science fiction logic; the film does not explain its rules.